What's more, the Nets have won nine of their last 10 games while surging back into the playoff mix in the Eastern Conference.
"You saw it coming the last time we played them because they were
all getting healthy," said Stevens. "Then they lost Lopez, and sometimes
when you lose a guy of that magnitude, it’s hard to adjust, at least
initially. And I think that’s what it was when they went on a little bit
of a slide after we played them.
"But the deal is, they are playing [Paul] Pierce at the 4. So now you’ve got [Alan] Anderson, Pierce, [Joe] Johnson as 2, 3, 4, they are all interchangeable. They all spread the floor and you can play [Shaun] Livingston as a starter as kind of a jack-of-all-trades. You can play [Deron] Williams
the majority of the minutes, who is now coming off the bench. Think
about that for a second, Deron Williams is coming off the bench on that
team -- that’s pretty good. You’ve got Garnett back at the 5, where he’s
played a lot the last few years here. I think you’ve got a lot of guys
that are really able to take advantage of their matchups by playing a
position down. And their bodies would suggest that they are able to play
a position down because they are so big and agile anyways."